Color Me Badi

Word from the backlot of Hollywood studios is ABC ordering up a pilot for a potential sitcom based on Firoozeh Dumas' memoir Funny in Farsi. Maz Jobrani and Marjan Neshat have already been cast as first bill, and the obligatory Fb page has been put up by omnipresent publicist Bita Milanian.

A television pilot, of course, is just a template and means nothing about whether it gets the green light to go on air. According to THR its been in the works for a while, but now that big-shot director Barry Sonnenfeld wants to go behind the lens and exec produce, ABC suits are willing to take a serious look.

Knowing that the pilot screenplay will be penned by two scribes without a history in writing multiculti material has me skeptical. However, of the major broadcast networks (meaning non-cable) ABC does have the track record for breaking ethnic material. Stuff like 'the George Lopez Show' and 'All-American Girl' starring Margaret Cho come to mind. And the hospital drama 'Greys Anatomy' from Shonda Rhimes is the first show created by a woman of color.

Those sitcoms were partly a product of ABC lauded Diversity Training Program for scribes and producers, which I seriously thought of applying for a few years ago. I had a change of heart when I figured that our shifting media landscape sees the interwebs a better route than the medium of broadcast networks.

But hey, if the showrunners of 'Funny in Farsi' want to give me a ring-a-ding, I'm all ears.